Problem with HD 6950 causing system shutdown

[Belvain]

Hi,

This is my first post here, but I have been reading this forum for a long time.

But to the problem, I just got my new HIS radeon HD6950 2GB card. I installed the card and drivers and everything went smoothly and it was working like a charm.
But when i try to play Dragon Age 2 or Bulletstorm or anything with little better graphics, I'm usually able to play like 10 minutes and then my computer will just shutdown, no bluescreen or any error message just sudden shutdown.
Sometimes I'm randomly able to play for something like 30 minutes before shutdown, but it will happen eventually and for me it seems that the problem is becoming more frequent.

First i was suspecting that my power supply is going bad, but I can run furmark for an hour (or more just didn't had patience to run it for longer) and after that GPU temps were 93C it is a bit high but i guess with amd cards thats normal.(And my previous cards were 2x 8800gt in sli and they were working fine)

My system:
processor: Q6600
mobo: MSI P6N SLI V2
Memory: 4GB Kingston HyperX
PS: Some random 4-year old 650W powersupply
OS: Windows 7 64bit
CCC version: 11.2

I know that the rest of my system is bit oldish but I'll update it more when I get the cash...

But still I'm suspecting that my PS is bad because it was like cheapest 650W PS i could find 4 years ago, and it has been running those 4 years pretty much 24/7.

Or do you think that I should just RMA the card?

 

[1nf3rn0x]

Before you do anything, open your case and list the numbers on the side of the power supply, this will help us determine whether your power supply is sufficient.

 

[Spectrum]

PS: Some random 4-year old 650W powersupply

may be your problem. get a better one

 

[TIGR]

Hey, welcome to TPU Belvain.

93C is not cool (no pun intended). Do you get any graphics artifacts before the system shuts down? Your PSU sounds like it should be replaced but my attention would be on the 6950 right now.

 

[1nf3rn0x]

93C is not cool (no pun intended).

My friend has 4890 CF they run at something like 70 idle and 100 degrees load, he's had them for 2 years straight. They run fine, I'm mostly suspecting the psu.

 

[TIGR]

It's not that 93C will damage the card—it's that 93C is high for a 6950 and may suggest other problems. Since the OP is coming from an 8800GT SLI configuration, we already know the PSU is able to power a similar load without problems, unless something happened to it during the video card upgrade.

 

[1nf3rn0x]

Review says average 6950 is something like 80-84 on load. He might live in a hot environment, and have a stuffy case. I know myself that my cards idle at 40-45 in summer then down to 32-36 in the winter.

I still find your idea something to think about, eventually we will fix this

 

[Spectrum]

try turning fan up to 100% manually in afterburner or CCC. (I know the sound is a pain in the arse but it's better than having a card that runs at 93c)
Also, another topic got me thinking about dust in the psu? i mean, lots and lots and lots of dust. your psu is 4 years old don't forget..


and as for infernox... my system keeps my room warm in winter

 

[Belvain]

Thanks for many fast replies.

My powersupply has 2 12V lines which both give 22A.

And there is no artifacts or FPS drop of anykind everything is functioning perfectly and out of nowhere system just dies.

 

[Spectrum]

that's quite strange
have a look inside psu and check dust levels, and if there's hardly any, then turn video card fan up manually to 100%

 

[Spectrum]

My friend has 4890 CF they run at something like 70 idle and 100 degrees load, he's had them for 2 years straight. They run fine, I'm mostly suspecting the psu.

your friend needs to get himself some better coolers or some new thermal paste

 

[Tatty_Two]

It's not that 93C will damage the card—it's that 93C is high for a 6950 and may suggest other problems. Since the OP is coming from an 8800GT SLI configuration, we already know the PSU is able to power a similar load without problems, unless something happened to it during the video card upgrade.

You are right, before I set my custom fan profiles my card reset the PC at around 90C although that was with a shader unlock etc, I am not saying that the PSU could be the culprit however these are fairly low power draw cards and even a 500W PSU should be enuff. I would suggest as a test, run the fan manually at 60% and then try the game, if the symptoms persist that will at least exclude the temp issues.

 

[Mussels]

You are right, before I set my custom fan profiles my card reset the PC at around 90C although that was with a shader unlock etc, I am not saying that the PSU could be the culprit however these are fairly low power draw cards and even a 500W PSU should be enuff. I would suggest as a test, run the fan manually at 60% and then try the game, if the symptoms persist that will at least exclude the temp issues.

at 4 years old, it could just be decaying

 

[Tatty_Two]

at 4 years old, it could just be decaying

It could indeed, just easiest to test the temps first before dealing with the PSU.

 

[Spectrum]

agreed. why waste money getting a new psu when the solution may be as simple as changing the fan speed.

 

[Belvain]

Tried with fans set to 100% and got no shutdown, so i guess this is solved.

Just wondering is there a way to make automatic fan controller smarter, meaning that it would increase fan speed more under load. Because keeping fan at 100% all the time isn't very good idea at least for me because it makes sound similar to vacuum cleaner

 

[Mussels]

Tried with fans set to 100% and got no shutdown, so i guess this is solved.

Just wondering is there a way to make automatic fan controller smarter, meaning that it would increase fan speed more under load. Because keeping fan at 100% all the time isn't very good idea at least for me because it makes sound similar to vacuum cleaner

you can use software to override the fan profiles, or modify the BIOS on the card to do so as you wish.


the others will give you the specifics, i must sleep. the sun shall rise soon and it burns my vampiric flesh.

 

[2DividedbyZero]

pointless changing the fan profile in the BIOS, it's overridden by the CCC anyway, better just use a 3rd party tool for a fan profile or change the CCC fan speed every time you play a game

 

[Radical_Edward]

MSI Afterburner is a good one to use.

 

[Belvain]

Thank you very much. Now it's working great.

I also flashed card with Asus unlocked shaders bios, and used Asus smartdoc to unlock wider overclocking range and adjusted core to 880Mhz but left the memory to stock.

I also adjusted power control to +20 to avoid throttling.

Created fan profile which will top fan speed if temps are >70C and now temps are 77C after 20min furmark run.

 

[_33]

That's it! I'm getting the 6950! LOL J/K but hey, sweet card...